High Cholesterol, 300

Fastest way without any medications? Umm.. eat right, exercise, and lift some wieghts. That should burn off something.

 

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Not that I am an expert in this field Mike. But there was a guy at my work the other day that had VERY high cholesterol and was told by his Dietician to quickest way to lower his cholesterol was pretty much detox. That meant eating fruit and veges for the next month and cutting back ALL meats/fatty foods ect. He said he has to start exercising also to trim a little weight off too. He is not overly a big lad, but just eats rubbish he reckons. He just started doing it last week now, so will see how he is going.

 

I am an expert in this area. I have had open heart surgery...triple by-pass. My cholesterol was in the high 200s before the operation 10 years ago.

Dean Ornish MD (cardiologist) is the expert.
Read his books.
Exercise, vegatarian diet, meditation (to reduce stress). My memoery; he has a couple of chapters on diet and exercise and 20 chapters on reducing stress.

Some part of most Cholesterol problems are inherited; you can't do anything about that except with medication. You liver makes cholesterol. You have to have it to live. Stress and too much drinking of alcohol makes your liver produce too much cholesterol.

One or two small drinks a day are OK for me. More than two drinks a day makes my cholesterol go way up. Non alcoholic beer works for me. Some it it tastes like real beer, but I can socialize and dring with no adverse cholesterol effects...but it does have carbs so keep in mind it will make you gain weight if you drink too much. I have learned to make two glasses of wine last all evening.

Exercise an hour every day. At least 5 or 6 days a week.

Drink lots of water. Increases metabolism and helps burn fat.

Oatmeal and anything high fiber is good. Fiber carries the fats out of the body instead of going into the blood stream.

Eat low fat or no fat foods. Look at the packages. No more than 20 grams of fat a day.

Keep carbohydrates low. Sugar turns into fat...more chloresterol.

You will learn to love eating healthy and you will lose weight. You will feel better and have more energy.

You will make time for prayer and meditation 20 minutes 2x a day. You will be happier and healthier.

I have some great self-hypnosis CDs that really work...let me know if you want to know how to get these. It takes at least six weeks to change bad habits.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Change is not easy but you can do it. Believe me a heart attack and by-pass surgery are things you want to avoid, not to mention strokes.

 

I often wonder how much science really knows about the human body. there are people out there fit as can be with what would be considered high cholesterol and a higher body fat ratio than the accepted schedule.

my grandmother at 84 has what is considered high cholesterol but is a this as can be and has zero heart issues, still walks a few miles a day and looks 60. eats right and drinks at least a glass of wine day. Her genetics play a big role in this I'm sure.

I had a physical last year with blood workups and was told that my cholesterol at 216 was a bit high, I don't eat fast food or junk, spend at a minimum of 6hrs a week weightlifting and 4hrs doing cardio. the doc still thinks I'm too fat because the screwy BMI chart says so. bottom line I no longer see that doc. short of meds my cholesterol is probably going to stay there.

and how much is driven by the drug industry?, it all about the money these days!

 

Oatmeal works!!! Eat it everyday, change your diet and exercise. It takes lots of discipline.

Good luck.

 

Oatmeal, that was the first change i made and it alone dropped my numbers 10%. i eat it everyday for breakfast.

 

Atkins....Period.

Mine is 119 was mid-200s

Consult a doctor that understands low-carb lifestyle, not a Dr. bystander...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-11-18-adkins_x.htm

 

+1 what Phil said about laying off the sauce

 

Just curious... with all of the physical activity... how many eggs do you eat on say a weekly basis? A single egg contains virtually the entire recommended amount of daily cholesterol intake.

As an undergrad just about to graduate with a degree in biochemistry, I can say that we know quite a bit about the metabolic pathways of the body. I should know, I've had to memorize a lot of them, and I've learned maybe a total of 15% of them. We know a lot of the individual pathways and such, but when it comes to the person as a whole, there is a large variation as to what works and what does not. The body is just too complex of a machine for there not to be variation.

As for cholesterol, the human body has the ability to make 100% of the bodies needs. You can cut it out of your diet entirely with no problems. The great thing about this process is that it is very metabolically expensive to do, so by simply cutting cholesterol out of your diet you can help yourself begin to lose weight (although this is not the only thing that has to be done). Granted, this will not necessarily prevent your cholesterol levels from dropping, as your body may be pre-disposed to making much higher levels, which could be attributed to many different factors.

When you go talk to your doctor, don't just ask about cholesterol in general. Ask him about the levels of the three different types of cholesterol. These are High density lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density lipoprotein (LDL), and Very low density lipoprotein (VLDL). If all of these are in the proper ratios, a high cholesterol level may not necessarily be a bad thing (saying this as a biochemist, not a doctor).

 

Unfortunately my high cholesterol was inherited. My cholesterol was 275-300 for about 10 years. I was riding about 6,000+ miles a year on my bike. I gave up cycling for about 3 years but my cholesterol never deviated. I worked on my diet for about 3 months but couldn't get below 225. I finally went on Lipitor. I was on 10mg of Lipitor per day (minimum dose). This worked for about 7 years until I developed a very bad reaction which took a couple of weeks to diagnose (by me). I've been on a new medicine for the last 1.5 years and everything seems good. Bad cholesterol is low and the good is high. I'm currently on Vytorin 10/10.

 

eggs in week? that varies, some weeks it'll be none and then some it'll be 2 on sat morning. from what i recall i thought they just had some new info on the cholesterol in eggs that contradicted the previous info?

my diet is high in fiber, whole grain and legumes aka beans. I consume at least 2cups a day of white and black beans and somewhere around 2cups a week of kidney beans. no dairy as I'm allergic to it, hence the need to eat at home 90% of the time. gallons and gallons of soy milk. and heres one most people don't do, 1~2 gallons of water a day!

the other levels were good I don't recall the numbers but the ratio of the good/bad was apparently border line, drugs were not recommended at this time.

personally I think we still have a lot to learn about the human body and cutting line down the middle and having everyone conform isn't going to work. I'm not even the average hight/weight, 6'5" and 250lbs I'm considered obese yet I can cycle for an hour without fatigue and dead lift 400lbs. So much for the 'chart' yes I'm cynical because I don't plan on starving myself anytime soon to fit the ideal average.

side note: the bodybuilders you see at competitions are at their worst health and physical point when competing. take a look at the strong men competitions and you'll see very fit and LARGE guys, polar opposites of the norm. it's with this variance of the human bodies capabilities that I say we are only touching the surface.

 

wana go for gold? get flax seed and cook up the steel cut oats, takes almost an hour but ohhhh so yummy now I'm hungry again.

 

Broccoli steamed in Lite soy sauce. Goes great with most meals. Check on milk thistle .

 

Very good points. I was just curious about the eggs because I know quite a few people who do lots of physical activity per week and then will go home and pound down two eggs every morning along with toast and grits and who knows what else. Definitely seems you are one of the ones that understands what you are doing. I also agree about the weight issue and the BMI index. I'm 6'3" and also just around 245 lbs, but I'm out of shape and I have a gut right now, but I could work out and get much more fit without dropping a lb. Its all in how the fat is distributed through the body.

And I did know about the body builders. They effectively dehydrate themselves for a day or two before the competition in order to get the maximum definition... which at the same time severely limits the capabilities of muscle.

 

Eggs:

Eat egg whites only. Tastes the same...all protein. Scrambled. Most restaurants will do this for you or you can eat egg beaters. Egg whites are perfect.

Butter: NO. Use "I can't believe it's not Butter". Margerine has oil= fat =bad. A no-no.

 

Dont worry about your cholesterol. It has almost zero meaning to your cardiac risk factors. If you stop eating it, you body makes it. If you eat too much, your body makes less. Your body dictates your levels. Fact is that 60% of people who have heart attacks have NO risk factors for heart disease. Heart attacks are not caused by fats clogging the arteries. They are caused by INFLAMATORY PROCESSES in the arterial system, which leads to plaquing. Sure, fried food causes inflamtion, but it is not the "fat" that is causing the plaquing...it is chemicals in the fried grease.

If you want to see what your cardiac risk factor is, have your blood tested for C-Reactive protein. It is an indicator of inflamatory processes. The range is .5-7. I just tested mine, and it was under .5. My father in law was a 7.5.

The best thing you can eat is fish, nuts, and red wine. Exercise is good. Take vitamins, expecially the Bs and C.

You should take a step back and think about the rise of MS and other demylenating diseases in America. Every cell membrane in our body is fat and choleterol. Our hormones are from cholesterol. In fact, our nerves are insulated by it, and maybe low fat diets are to blame for the rise of MS in our society. No fats, no nerve insulation supplies...poor nerve function and breakdown.

 

I'd have to agree with this, even though the specifics are new to me the issue of too little fat or none at all is a problem. case in point, my wifes grandmother had heart issues and took it to an extreme, zero and I mean zero fat intake. as a result they could not do heart surgery to correct a valve problem. she continued to lose weight to the point that her heart doctor told her she needed fat intake (5'6" 80lbs), she was repulsed by the idea and stopped using that doctor. although she lived to 84 her quality of life was horrible, her refusal to eat anything with any fat or salt took its tole on her.